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The wealthiest one percent in President Joe Biden’s America set a record with a net worth of $44 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter, U.S. Federal Reserve data revealed. Biden casts his administration as opposed to the widening wealth gap, even though a majority of Americans still live paycheck to paycheck, a recent LendingClub study found, raising concerns that so-called “Bidenomics” failed to help average Americans. A majority of voters are “worse off financially” under Biden, up 25 points since he assumed office in 2021, a Fox News poll found Wednesday.

Congress will vote Friday on a $1.2 trillion, 1,000-plus page spending bill revealed Thursday just before 3:00 a.m. The bill will start in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will move the bill under “suspension of the rules.” Johnson repeatedly has used suspension of the rules — which requires two-thirds support but bypasses procedural opposition from conservatives — to advance legislation lacking broad Republican support. Suspension of the rules also enables Johnson to bypass a requirement that Congress receive at least 72 hours to review legislation before voting on it.

A billboard in New York City’s Times Square warns of the “ticking time bomb” that is the $34 trillion national debt. Released by the nonprofit Committee to Unleash Prosperity (CTUP) group, the ad campaign includes a 50-f00t-high billboard that will run for three months in Times Square. The digital billboard features a video of people running away in fear of a giant countdown of the national debt until it finally explodes in oblivion. Take a look: Scared of the national debt? You should be. @Comm4Prosperity's NEW Time Square billboard warns of the threat posed by the "ticking time bomb" of...

Medicare and Social Security are in crisis and face significant challenges according a report from the U.S. Treasury Department which indicates the programs are both underfunded to the tune of a $175 trillion. The report suggests that if the current trends continue the programs may not be around when the current generation of American children reach retirement age unless substantial changes are implemented. Projections suggest that Medicare and Social Security may struggle to meet full benefit obligations within the next decade, with factors like inflation and economic output adding strain due to insufficient funds coming in to support these programs....

Tax cuts and pandemic relief measures enacted during the Trump administration added $8.4 trillion to the national debt over the 10-year budget window, according to a study released Wednesday by a top budget watchdog group. Discretionary spending increases from 2018 and 2019 added $2.1 trillion, Trump’s signature Tax Cuts and Jobs Act added $1.9 trillion and the 2020 bipartisan CARES Act for pandemic relief added another $1.9 trillion, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a Washington think tank, found in a study released earlier this month. “Of the $8.4 trillion President Trump added to the debt, $3.6 trillion...

Nearly a third of all outstanding US government debt is set to mature in the next 12 months, according to an analysis from asset management firm Apollo. A chart shared by Chief Economist Torsten Sløk in September showed that the share of US public debt set to mature in a year or less has steadily risen toward pandemic-era levels and is now at 31%. In terms of dollar amount, that's $7.6 trillion, a high not seen since early 2021, and is a source of upward pressure on US rates, he added. In addition, public debt maturing in the near term...

The IRS is cracking down on domestic tax evasion by going after wealthy individuals and complex private partnerships, but some of the biggest tax evaders — U.S. multinational corporations — are still exploiting legal gray areas to stash money overseas and keep it out of the government’s reach. Fed up with a stalled international effort at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to rein in the use of tax havens and put a global corporate minimum tax into force, African countries at the United Nations are now leading a charge for greater transparency and fairness in international tax.

CNN — The federal budget deficit is expected to balloon to about $2 trillion for fiscal year 2023, roughly double what it was in the previous fiscal year, according to a government watchdog group. The surge stems largely from a sharp decline in tax revenues, coupled with an increase in mandatory spending on Social Security, Medicare and interest payments, as well as in other areas. It follows a sharp drop in the budget shortfall in fiscal year 2022 after two years of giant deficits swollen by record government spending on Covid-19 pandemic relief measures.

During this week’s broadcast of FNC’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) decried the immorality of congressional spending levels for 2023. In 2019, Congress spent $4.4 trillion, Johnson said. In 2023, the federal government is expected to spend $6.3 trillion. “When I hear bipartisanship — and I asked Nancy, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, about this earlier — that Senate appropriators, and I’m talking about Democrats and Republicans, have gone — they’re working on — to boost spending above the Fiscal Responsibility Act levels by classifying $14 billion of ordinary appropriations as emergency spending,” fill-in host Dagan McDowell said. “What the...

Total consumer debt rose to an all-time high in the first quarter of 2023, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, with increases to mortgage balances, auto loans and student loans putting debt at a record level. Consumer debt rose to over $17 trillion for the first time ever, according to the data released by the New York Fed. The total represented a $148 billion increase from the previous quarter and a $1.2 trillion surge from last year. The rise in debt was spurred on by a $121 billion climb in mortgage balances in the U.S., bringing total...

President Biden is set to formally propose an array of tax increases on wealthy individuals and corporations in a budget plan that he says will reduce the deficit by $2 trillion over the next decade, setting up a battle royal with Republicans on Capitol Hill. Biden told lawmakers during his State of the Union address last month that his budget will lower the deficit and extend the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund “by making the wealthy and big corporations begin to pay their fair share.” The White House on Tuesday unveiled a proposal to raise the Medicare surtax on...

The US is on target to eclipse previous economic forecasts and add a staggering $19 trillion to the national debt in the next 10 years, according to the nation’s budget scorekeeper. In a report released on Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office warned that one way or another, through tax hikes or spending cuts, the country’s fiscal course needs to be corrected. “Over the long term, our projections suggest that changes in fiscal policy must be made to address the rising costs of interest and mitigate other adverse consequences of high and rising debt,” CBO Director Phillip Swagel wrote in a...

President Joe Biden on Monday delivered remarks in Baltimore, Maryland, where he touted a tunnel project being addressed with funds from the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act he signed in 2021. At the same time, he continues to refuse spending cut negotiations with Republican lawmakers over the $31.3 trillion debt ceiling breached on January 19, even though he has admitted Washington politicians need to rein in the national debt. Biden visited Baltimore to discuss a renovation to the Baltimore-Patomic Tunnel, a rail tunnel he claimed to have passed through “a thousand times” as an Amtrak passenger.

More than half of the members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted remotely Friday for the $1.7 trillion government spending bill, claiming in proxy voting letters they could not be present to vote because of the “ongoing public health emergency.” More than 220 members — from both sides of the political aisle — used the proxy voting option to vote for the 4,000-plus page omnibus bill, the final vote of the 117th Congress barring unforeseen circumstances.

On Thursday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) stated that she doesn’t think that the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill will make inflation worse because it funds programs that already exist. Co-host Jim Sciutto asked, “[Y]ou guys are going to vote and get this 1.7 trillion spending bill passed. It’s got a lot in there. But I wonder, the topline figure is quite big. And it’s not far off — the most recent COVID relief bill, which was 1.9 trillion, which some have blamed for being inflationary, and I wonder, as folks are watching right now, should they be concerned...

Outgoing Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Richard Shelby (R-AL) slipped $656 million worth of earmarks into the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill. Congressional leaders dropped the $1.7 trillion, 4,155-page omnibus spending bill at 1:30 a.m. ET, giving lawmakers little time to digest the implications of the mammoth legislation. While the bill may have many major reforms that are readily apparent, lawmakers also slipped hard-to-find earmarks into the bill. Many lawmakers, such as Shelby, are retiring and face few political repercussions for pushing a bill that contains many special interest carveouts and increases the deficit.

Congressional appropriators dropped the $1.7 trillion, 4,155-page omnibus spending bill at 1:30 A.M. ET Tuesday, giving lawmakers days to read it before the government shuts down Friday. The bill would fund the government through September 2023 and would boost defense spending by $76 billion, totaling $858 billion. Domestic spending is $773 billion. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has chalked up the higher increase in defense spending compared to domestic spending as a Republican victory, even though Democrats managed to pass their $700 billion Inflation Reduction Act, which boosted domestic expenditures on climate change and other leftist domestic priorities. Among...

Nearly 630,000 abortions cost the United States roughly $6.9 trillion in 2019 alone, according to a report released this week by Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC). The committee released the report in response to claims by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other economists that restricting abortion would negatively effect the economy by diminishing labor market outcomes of women.

Sen. Joe Manchin has yanked his proposal for a $1.8 trillion compromise on President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan off the table, according to reports — potentially the final nail in the coffin of the Democratic Party’s signature social-spending agenda. The West Virginia Democrat’s about-face was reported Saturday by the Washington Post, citing three unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter.

For climate experts and policymakers, $1 trillion is just a start. As the U.S. seeks to prove it’s serious about its international climate commitments, the focus now is on whether the Biden administration can pass its $2 trillion spending bill, which includes $555 billion to fight climate change and could be the new cornerstone of federal climate policy. The $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress this month already commits historic levels of funding for climate projects. But experts say the U.S. won’t reach its climate goals or restore its international credibility unless the administration can pass its Build...